Not Good At All in Baja

[rossman]

Originally Posted by PapaDave

Don't know if the Vaquita can survive, I hope so.

Sounds like the next extinct creature is going to be the totoaba.

I'm afraid you may be right about the Totoaba. Went I started fishing the Bahia Gonzaga area, and really not that long ago, 8 years maybe, they were like vermin in the bay. And good size to them too. I almost felt like it was time to remove them from the "illegal" list. The last couple years of maybe 10 or 12 days of fishing I've hooked up with maybe 3 small ones. Another thing goes against them is they are very difficult to revive after a fight. Even in shallow water. Much more difficult than a BSB or a WSB. I fear that even the ones caught and released by recreational fishermen don't have a very good survival rate.

Just as an aside, I was in Mulege this past week end and I ran into a kayaker who has been bouncing around southern Baja for the past few months. He had been in Asuncion last fall for a month or so and I fished a good bit with him. One of the places he stayed for a few weeks was Loreto. He hooked and landed a tanker Totoaba there. He estimated it at 75 lbs and seeing the photo I think he was close with that estimate. Hooked in shallow water on light line and he spent over an hour trying to revive it with no luck. Ultimately he gave it to a nearby pangero who was totally shocked at finding one that far south, and never had seen one of that size.